Abstract:

In the digital age, our lives become more dependent on technology, yet the digital gap is intensifying especially because most people lack digital literacy. The current study presents a unique course in the context of teacher preparation titled: 'Play with me in Code' which was included in the university-based courses of the elementary school program. The main aims of the course were to expose pre-service teachers (PSTs) to computational thinking and programming. 'Scratch' was chosen to be the program in which PSTs will practice programming in the course. We chose Scratch as it is a friendly-used program and is familiar to elementary school students. The added value of programming using Scratch in the context of teacher education lies not only in familiarity with a programming language but also with high-order learning processes encouraging learner activism, collaboration, logical thinking development, tackling big problems by breaking them down into smaller problems, identifying and using common solutions to common problems and more (Resnick et al., 2009; Resnick, 2012).

The present study aims to examine 25 PSTs' attitudes towards:
(a) technology and programming,
(b) facing challenges of coding with Scratch, and
(c) the scaffolding they use across the learning process.

To this end, a mixed-method approach was activated (Creswell, 2011) by using questionnaires, blog posts, and reflections.

The course was designed online and co-taught by a lecturer from the college and a moderator from external educational company which is specializing in the development of technological learning environments. The design of the course included a content aspect (i.e., learning the code language through experience in building simulations/games), and a pedagogical aspect (i.e., discussing personalized learning, knowledge building, and problem-solving). Each lesson included a 'Scratch' experience and reflective thinking about how we learn. The course included three main modules. The first module introduced the theories and examples of educational games and discussed the challenges and dilemmas involved in integrating computer games into teaching at school. The second module focused on the Scratch program (motion, conditions, and loops) learning operations. The third module was devoted to programming final projects, presenting and evaluating them collaboratively.

Findings revealed that pre-service teachers increased their attitudes toward teacher agency about technology and programming. Furthermore, the learning environment encouraged pre-service teachers' autonomy and creativity and enabled them to activate three major scaffoldings for tackling programming challenges:
(a) virtual (i.e., Scratch website support),
(b) socioemotional (i.e., collaboration with peers and self-directed learning), and
(c) meta (i.e., lecturers' mediation).

The study's conclusions relate to the importance of providing PSTs opportunities to experience learning by programming for raising their awareness of the gamification of education and the importance of enhancing learner agency in the future.

References:
[1] Creswell, J., & Plano, C.V. (2011). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research (2nd Ed). Thounsand Oaks: Sage Publications. ‏
[2] Resnick, M. (2012). Reviving Papert's dream. Educational Technology, 52(4), 42-46.‏

Keywords:

Scratch, teacher education, computational thinking, scaffoldings.